Agency Also Falls Flat in Tire Fiasco

Intense public and legal pressure continues to build against Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. and Ford Motor Co. State attorneys general across the nation have held conference calls on potential lawsuits against the two companies in the case of defective tires that may have claimed dozens of lives.

Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone also face civil lawsuits abroad and class-action suits here involving product liability and personal injury claims. Venezuela’s consumer protection agency wants a criminal investigation into Bridgestone and Ford, and congressional hearings into the matter resume next week.

It’s in the midst of the bewildering pace of these developments that U.S. officials should remember that consumers and their immediate and long-term needs must remain paramount. That means getting to the heart of why the two companies weren’t forced to release relevant information months or even years ago.

The story broke in the spring with the announcement of a federal investigation into 21 reported traffic deaths allegedly caused by blowouts, rollovers and other accidents involving tire tread separation and outright disintegration of 15-inch Firestone ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires. Those tires have been widely used on Ford’s popular Explorer sport-utility vehicle. Now, as many as 88 deaths and many more injuries are under investigation.

Some of the heat has rightly swung toward a problem agency of long standing, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA’s mandate is to reduce deaths, injuries and economic losses resulting from motor vehicle crashes. It also investigates safety defects in motor vehicles.

The agency’s dangerous shortcomings, detailed in a Times series by Myron Levin in January, were manifest in the Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford case. NHTSA relied heavily on the companies to voluntarily supply safety information, and its poor statistical database has helped mask potential dangers to consumers.

NHTSA officials were aware in 1998 that the nation’s largest auto insurer had noticed a pattern of problems with the tire blowouts on certain SUV models. NHTSA officials knew as early as mid-May that Ford had recalled the same Firestone models overseas last year.

So where was the timely alarm from NHTSA? Bridgestone/Firestone and Ford officials aren’t the only ones who deserve some grilling time on the hot seat in Congress next week.